Controlling other people

Even when his columns are not very good, I enjoy reading George Will. This column is good, but I was drawn to this particular paragraph on liberalism:

Liberalism’s agenda has been constant since long before liberals, having given their name a bad name, stopped calling themselves liberals and resumed calling themselves progressives, which they will call themselves until they finish giving that name a bad name. The agenda always is: Concentrate more power in Washington, more Washington power in the executive branch and more executive power in agencies run by experts. Then trust the experts to be disinterested and prudent with their myriad intrusions into, and minute regulations of, Americans’ lives. Obama’s presidency may yet be, on balance, a net plus for the public good if it shatters Americans’ trust in the regulatory state’s motives.

Yes, that would be a positive outcome. Experts are fallible and experts always have, at minimum, their own interests in mind (which is often expanding the power that experts have to make decisions and control other people’s lives).